1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system providing a service for printing documents in a place a user has visited.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as the processing speed of CPU (Central Processing Unit) has enhanced, personal computers essentially including the CPU have widely been used. In such context, printers which output printing data created by the personal computers have spread.
For example, before a business user is going to a meeting which will remotely be held, the user prepares some documents by operating a printer, connected to a personal computer in office, in accordance with a general printing method. Then, the user brings the output documents to the place he/she is going.
However, according to such a printing method, if the user needs to bring a large number of documents to a remote place, it would be too much work for the user to bring the documents.
In order to overcome such a problem, various methods have been proposed. For example, according to one method, to-be-printed data including the documents created by the personal computer is stored on a recording medium, such as a CD, etc. The user brings this recording medium to a printing shop located near the destination, and prints the stored documents at the printing shop. Otherwise, the user may send the to-be-printed data including the documents to the printing shop through a network in advance.
Recently, a printing service with the utilization of a network has rapidly spread. For example, Unexamined Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication No. 11-146118 proposes a printing service. According to this printing service, the to-be-printed data of the user portable terminal is registered in a server through a network, and the user goes to a communicable printer of the remote place. Then, the to-be-printed data is read out from the server, and the read data can be printed by the printer, while charging the user for this service.
Further, there is a service for displaying a neighbor map of the destination through a network upon inputting of destination information. According to this service, the user can find out the nearest printing shop from the destination.
However, according to a method of printing documents stored on a recording medium in the printing shop, it is necessary to open the documents that have been created using a specific application. Hence, a personal computer needs to be installed in the printing shop. In the case where the printing shop does not have the application for opening printing data of the documents, the documents can not be printed.
Furthermore, according to the method disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication No. H11-146118, the nearest printing shop from the destination can be searched out. However, the searched printing shop may be located far from the user's route to the destination. In this case, the user may need to take the long way to the destination, only for using the searched printing shop.
The entire contents of Unexamined Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication No. H11-146118 are hereby incorporated by reference in its entirely.